You’ve been sleeping badly for months, enduring the painful consequences of not sleeping during the day and worrying at night because you can’t sleep a wink. You are suffering from an insomnia problem that must be treated medically because it is affecting all areas of your life. To top it off, you also have to put up with the advice of your family, friends and co-workers who, coincidentally, have the secret to solving your insomnia problem.
What a person with insomnia does not want to hear
- Since it is not easy to help a person who has a sleep disorder, we should be more careful with what we say and advice. The last thing an insomniac wants to hear is you telling him he needs to relax. Especially if you accompany it with that touch of simplicity and obviousness, as if the solution for insomnia had been right under her nose all the time and she wasn’t able to see it.
- Anyone who suffers from a sleep disorder knows that they have to wind down to sleep. What the rest of the world may not know is that it is not an easy task for someone dominated by nerves, fatigue and anguish. You probably don’t want to hear how your problem is trivialized by arguing that you also slept badly the night before. Did you not sleep last night? We are talking about insomnia, a serious health problem.
- It is not a very good idea to receive a person who suffers from insomnia in the morning telling them how bad they are, let alone make jokes about their situation. Even with the best of intentions, insomnia problems require sensitivity and delicacy.
What you should not advise a person with insomnia
- When there is a person with insomnia around us, it is very common for us to dedicate ourselves to giving them advice to solve their situation. It is not about not trying to help, or leaving that person alone facing insomnia, but you have to be very careful before giving anti-insomnia advice. The first thing that must be clear in order to give some advice is to know exactly what insomnia consists of.
- Because to a person who is suffering from chronic insomnia, it is unnecessary for you to tell them that an infusion of valerian before bedtime works miracles. Surely he has already tried that valerian remedy, and that of lime blossom, and that of lavender, and that of milk and that of so many home remedies against insomnia. And it is evident that they have not worked for him.
- Although if there is something that we should never do because we would be playing with the health of the other person, it is to give them our own sleeping pills. People who suffer from insomnia feel identified with other people who are going through the same situation and they fully trust them. But when we talk about medications, and more taking into account the risk of dependence on anxiolytics, the recommendation must be made by a doctor.
